Monday, July 31, 2017

First, a new law passed last week in Russia, bans access to certain "secure browsing apps" effectually limiting access to banned sites and making it easier for the state to access Russians browsing habits. Part of the law requires internet companies to restrict patrons access if they are dealing with illegal information. See http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40774315 for more information.

Second, your supposedly anonymous web browsing habits are now easier to find and expose. Two researchers revealed that 95% of the information they found on people's habits came from 10 popular browser extensions. Companies gather data in your browsing habits and ultimately control and customize which advertisements you see afterwards. Analyzing that data with freely shared public data individuals share allowed the researchers to identify individuals. Many people share so much, that it isn't hard to see that this is very possible. Read more about it here http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40770393